As Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT) systems become more sophisticated, and multimedia communication becomes more pervasive, increasingly sophisticated call centers are being developed wherein multimedia communication of many sorts is used by agents in addition to conventional telephony techniques. Companies are developing multimedia communication methods and are beginning to integrate these methods within the call center environment. These developments have produced a new breed of multimedia agent to handle communication with the aid of advanced software-communications programs. Agents within call centers who once handled only telephone communications are now required to handle a variety of communications such as, but not limited to E-mail, Video mail, Video calls, and data network calls such as Internet protocol telephony (IPT) calls.
A multimedia agent for purposes of this specification is an agent in a call center charged with handling various communications transactions, and who has access to multi-communication mediums, hence, the term multimedia. A multimedia agent may work in a call center set up for technical service, sales, management, or for any other purpose for which call centers are used.
As described above, many of the newer mediums of communication that may be employed by a multimedia agent involve some type of computer integration. In such call centers agents are typically provided with computerized workstations, including a computer, which may be a personal computer, and a video display unit, hereinafter PC/VDU. In such call centers known to the present inventor, the agents' PC/VDUs are interconnected on a local area network (LAN), which may also connect to one or more processors in turn connected to a telephony switch to which the agents telephones are connected. Through sophisticated computer techniques integrated with the requisite hardware, multimedia capability for the agents is achieved.
A multimedia agent working in a call center such as described above is assigned to a workstation as described, and the workstation, together with software accessible on the LAN presents graphic user interfaces (GUIs) for displaying information relating to each communication transaction handled by that particular agent. For example, along with normal phone capabilities, the agent may be capable of sending and receiving E-mail, Video mail, and the like. Video conferencing may also be a part of an agent's transaction protocol. Similarly, a caller to such an agent may have a PC connected on-line, or to a network accessible to the agents, and thus be enabled to send and receive E-mail, video calls, or any other multimedia communication that the agent may host. As well, callers may be accessing the agent from a normal analog telephone where only voice mail capabilities and conventional telephony audio services are utilized.
Call routing to and within call centers involves computerized platforms and software dedicated to directing a caller to an appropriate agent for the purpose of fulfilling the purpose of the caller Such routing is known to the present inventor as agent-level call routing. Routing of calls, then, may be on several levels. Pre-routing may be done at Service Control Points (SCPs) and further routing may be, and typically is, accomplished at individual call centers. A call center typically involves a central switch, which may be, for example, a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), or PSTN switch. The central switch is connected to the public-switched telephone network (PSTN), as is well-known in the art. Agents, trained to handle customer service, occupy agent stations connected by telephone lines to the central switch, and connected in this example to file servers and the like on a LAN.
In a broad, general, and conventional sense, when a call center is routing an incoming call to an agent there are two common results experienced and reported to the system. One is that the agent is busy on a phone call. The routing routine in this instance typically reports that the agent is busy and the call is routed to the next available agent. Often a call is arbitrarily routed to a busy agent even though a free agent is available to answer the call. The other result is that the agent is determined to be available and the call is routed to that particular agent. In some systems incoming calls are dumped into a general queue to be answered by a next available agent with no routine to determine whether or not an agent is busy, and no more sophisticated routing.
As described above, multimedia communication methods are emerging as applicable methods of communication within call centers. For example, E-mail programs, video calls, IPT calls, and the like can be utilized by agents in addition to voice mail and more conventional connection. In some cases agents are also connected to the Internet for purposes of communicating with other agents, accessing additional information not hosted in the call center, or even for the purpose of contacting or responding to Internet-sourced inquiries. It is to such multimedia-capable call centers that the present invention is addressed.
It is clear to the present inventor that in a multimedia-capable call center, in conventional agent-level routing, an agent will be determined by control routines to be busy (unavailable for further routing) if he or she is engaged on a telephone call or a video call. These activities can be automatically determined by checking the agent's telephone line, and in some cases his/her computer terminal. It is also clear to the present inventor that this determination is insufficient for such a call center, and may well cause unwanted difficulty. An agent in such a call center will have a job description beyond engaging in customer calls. He or she must also answer e-mails, voice-mails, video-mails and the like. In the event further calls continue to be routed to an agent who is charged with answering waiting e-mails and the like, the part of the agent's responsibilities relating to answering such mails may never be adequately met.
What is clearly needed is a determination method and system by automatic control routine that will determine whether or not an agent is busy with respect to all of the agent's responsibilities, including active calls and level of dealing with accumulating e-mails, other multimedia messages and the like.